Press feed mechanism.



No. 656,910. Patented Au 28, won. E. TYDEN. PRESS FEED MECHANISM.

(Application filed Dec. 16, 1898.) v

3 Sheets-Sheet (No Model.)

| urns co, mom-mum WASHINGTON, n. c.

Patented Aug. 28, I900. E. TYDEN.

PRESS FEED MECHANISM.

mammal; filed Dec. 16, 898.)

'3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

No Model.)

EMIL TYDEN, OF HASTINGS, MICHIGAN.

PRESS FEED MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 656,910, dated August 28, 1900. Application filed December 16. 1 898. Serial No. 699,485. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EMIL TYDEN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Hastings, county of Barry, and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Press Feed Mechanism, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part thereof.

The purpose of this invention is to provide mechanism for feeding blanks to die-presses and other like machinery of such a character as to discard automatically and prevent from reaching the die blanks which are excessive in thickness or accumulated one upon another, to the end that only one blank at a time shall be delivered to the die and that single blanks of excessive thickness may also be discarded.

I have illustrated my invention as applied to a machine arranged to handle circular or approximatelycircular blanks, of which a very large quantity becomes waste material in the manufacture of many articles of sheet metal. The invention, however, is to be in no wise understood as limited to the handling of circular blanks or blanks of any other particular form, although the detail shape of some of the parts might be advantageously accommodated to the particular shape of blanks for which the machine was specially designed.

In the drawings, Figurel is a side elevation of a press of conventional form having associated with it my improved feeding mechanism. Fig. 2 is a plan of. the same. Fig. 3 is a forward side elevation of the feeding mechanism. Fig. 4- is a detail section at the line 4 4; on Fig. 1. Fig. 5 is a detail section at the line 5 5 on Fig. 3.

In general my invention comprises any suitable means for picking up blanks from a source and dropping them onto a carrier or into a race, by which they are carried or guided to the die, and devices associated With such carrier or race which are constructed and arranged to operate upon the blanks while they are on their way toward the die in such a manner as to test the thickness of the blank or blanks exposed to the testing device, such testing device being arranged in connection with a trap-door or switch in the race or passage-channel, which is opened or swung into position to divert the blank or cating head of a press of ordinary construction.

Gr is a bracket mounted on one side of the press-body B, extending forwardly above the die-bed. H is a bracket mounted upon the lower part of the press-body and extending upwardly. I is a bracket mounted upon the same side of the press-body as the other brackets, toward the rear. These three brackets G, H, and I sustain the several parts of the feed mechanism, all parts of which derive their movements from the main shaft 0. The bracket I-I affords bearing for a shaft J, which carries a large sprocketwheel K. This bracket also supports one end of the blank-race L, which is a slotted channel, along which the blanks are designed to be carried on their way toward the die. The other end of the race L is supported on the bracket G, which also affords bearing for a small sprocket-wheel M. On the bracket H, above the bearing of the shaft J, bearings are rovided for a corres ondin s rocketwheel M, and around the two sprocket-wheels M and M the chain m travels. This chain has its links at uniform intervals provided with feed fingers or teeth m m, &c., which project through the slot Z of the race L. At the end remote from the bracket H the race L has an inclined delivery portion L, in the floor of which there is provided a trapdoor L secured to a rock-shaft L at the upper end and adapted to swing downward. or back from the race at the lower end. A spring L tends to hold the trap-door in closed position, and the rock-shaft has a lever-arm L which is engaged, as hereinafter described, to operate the trap-door. The outer end of the shaft M of the sprocket-wheel M carries a second sprocket-wheel M, which is driven by a chain m", passing around the sprocket-wheel K.

P represents a pneumatic pickup device on the end of an arm P, which may be operated in any suitable manner to cause it to os cillate from a position overhanging the blanks to a position overhanging the race L, onto which it may drop the blanks. The detail construction of this pick-up device is not ill ustrated, and any of the various familiar devices heretofore used for like purposes may be employed in its relation to the race. The train which drives the feed-chain m receives step-by-step movement from the main shaft 0. This movement is communicated by means of a crank C, secured at the end of the shaft and arranged to reciprocate a slide 0, suitably mounted in the bracket I and provided with a pawl O, which engages a ratchet-wheel K on the shaft J and which is engaged by a detent-pawl O to prevent reverse movement. It will be understood that this mechanism will cause the feed-chain m to engage by its fingers m and advance with a step-by-step movement along the race any blanks which may be dropped onto the race by the pick-up and delivery arm, the movement of such arm being timed with the movement of the press, so as to drop such blanks onto the race at the rest interval of the chain. In the absence of other devices every blank or aggregation of blanks thus dropped in front of the feed-fingers m will be carried by the chain to the inclined portion of the race and being delivered thereonto will slide and fall into the chute M by which they may be guided to the die. In order to accomplish the purpose of this invention by discarding blanks which are excessive in thickness or number aggregated, I provide the testing device which will now be described. On the bracket G there is fulcrumed an oscillating lever-frame Q, one arm of which extends inward toward the main shaft 0 and overhangs a cam C on the latter, a suitable roll Q being provided to ride on the periphery of the cam, a spring q being attached to said lever frame and to the bracket G, tending to hold the roll on the cam. At the other end of the oscillating frame there is formed a sleeve or journal bearing Q in which the tester R is mounted and adapted to reciprocate. This tester terminates below the bearing Q overhanging the race, and between a nut r, screwed onto the lower end of it, and the lower end of the bearing Q? there is interposed a spring R of suitable stiffness to resist a considerable degree of upward pressure on the tester. A stop-collar R above the bearing Q limits the downward movement of the tester in the bearing. The frame Q has a bracket-arm Q extending upwardly between the sleeve-bearing Q and the fulcrum of the oscillating frame, and on said bracket-arm at considerable distance above the level of the race and lower end of the tester there is fulcrum ed a bell-crank lever S, and the tester R at the upper end is provided with a laterally-projecting abutment R which engages under bearing. encountered by the tester, causing its offset the short horizontally-extended arm S on the bell-crank lever, so that an upward movement of the tester will give an inward swinging movement to the lower end of the depending arm of the bell-crank lever. Said depending arm at the lower end is extended inward in the direction of the length of the race in order to reach and be in position to encounter by such extension S the lever-arm L of the rock-shaft of the trap-door L Said lever-arm terminates in a notched segment Z and pivoted on the side of the race there is provided a latch T, adapted to engage the segment, having a spring T, tending to hold it in such engagement. This latch has an extension T which overhangs a finger Q on the frame Q, so that the final upward movement of that frame will disengage the latch.

The operation of this mechanism is as follows: At each upstroke of the reciprocating head of the press the pawl-and-ratchetmechanism, actuated by the crank C, rotates the shaft J one step and causes the feed-chain to advance the blanks which may be lying in the race onward therein one step. The pickup and delivery device being timed so as to drop a blank on the race just before each upstroke of the press, it may be assumed that ablank is lying in advance of each of the carrying-fingers which are protruding through the race-bottom and that at the first such step movements one blank will be carried into position directly under the tester, the feedchain coming to rest and the blank being therefore halted in that position. At the succeeding downstroke of the press the cam 0 whose eccentric portion C is passing under the abutment Q of the oscillating frame Q, oscillates said frame in a direction to carry the tester downward and cause it to encounter at its lower end the blank or blanks lying on the race. The tension of the spring R. is

designed to be sufficient to prevent the tester to prevent the tester from being thus forced upward in its bearing by the presence on the race under the tester of a blank or aggregation of blanks of excessive thickness. A cupped or dished blank will be forced to yield atthe point of contact with the tester; but its actual thickness only will operate to move the latter in its If a blank of excessive thickness is finger to actuate the short arm S of bell-crank lever S a distance equal to the excessive thickness of the blank encountered, the long arm of said lever resting at the extremity of the extension S against the upstanding leverarm of the rock-shaf t L and very near to the root or lower end of that lever-arm-that is, close to the rock-shaft-will rock the shaft in a direction to open the trapdoor. Any de sired multiplication of the movement may be effected by the proper proportioning of the levers. In the structure illustrated in the drawings I have designed to show parts so proportioned that an excess of one two-hundredth of an inch in the thickness of the blank encountered by the tester will open the gate at the lower end about one-fourth of an inch, which will be ample to permit the escape of the blanks which may be fed onto it by the feed-chain. This opening movement of the gate, in case an excessive blank or blanks are encountered by the tester in the race, will be performed while the eccentric portion C of the cam O is passing the abutment Q, and when thus opened the gate will be detained in open position by the engagement of the latch T with the notched segment Z of the lever-arm L Running off the extreme portion of the upraise C of the cam, the abutment Q descends to the concentric portion 0 and rides thereon for a distance, during which time the tester having been lifted from the blank by the descent of the abutment to such concentric portion of the cam stands at rest sufficiently above the bottom of the race to allow the free movement of the blanks thereunder. This concentric portion of the cam extends through more than half the circumference, corresponding to the portion of rotation of the shaft, during which the crank O is giving the shaft J its step movement and causing the feed-chain to carry the blanks onward another step. The blank or blanks which have been submitted to the tester are in this movement carried over the upper end of the inclined portion of the race and started down the same, and if the trapdoor has been opened by reason of the excessive thickness of the blanks they will pass out through the aperture and be diverted by the chute-board W into any suitable receptacle; but if the blank, not being excessive, has not caused the opening of the trap-door the blank will pass on down the incline over the trap-door into the chute leading to the die. This action, it will be noticed, will have taken place during the upstroke of the reciprocating head of the press, and the blank, if it passes the trap-door, will reach the die after the latter has had time to be relieved of the preceding blanks. The concentric portion 0 of the cam extends through a suflicient number of degrees to insure the blank getting past the trap-door-either passing through it or over it, according to its position-before the abutment Q runs off the shoulder C of the cam and reaches the innermost point of the cam-track at 0 In running off this shoulder it causes the oscillating frame Q to complete its return oscillation, lifting the tester to the highest point, and in this last movement causing the finger Q of the frame Q to encounter the tail of the latch T and release it from the notched segment Z so that thereupon the trap-door, if it has been opened, will be instantly closed again. The parts are now in the initial position, and the cont-inuing movement of the press repeats the described movement, causing a blank to be delivered from the race at each complete rotation of the press-shaft and causing all excessive blanks to be discarded through the open trap-door and all proper blanks to be passed onward to the die.

It will be understood from the above description that the blank never halts nor lies on the trap-door, but only passes over it in its continuous movement toward the chute M so that when the blank lies halted under the tester there is no blank in advance of itt'. 6., between it and the dieand that therefore when the trap-door is opened by the presence of a thick blank (or aggregation of adhering blanks) under the tester it remains open during the release and succeeding forward impulse of that blank or aggregation of blanks and that no other blank reaches the trap-door or advances past or falls through it until after another action of the tester.

In case of rapid action the impulse given the blanks by the feed-chain m might project them with sufficient velocity to prevent them from following the incline containing the trap-door, and in order to insure their falling through the latter when it is opened, even in case of such rapid action as might otherwise prevent it, I mount across above the channel L beyond the trap a guard If in position to be encountered by any blank which may be thus projected too forcibly to slide down the incline. The blank being thus positively arrested will fall onto the incline through the trap-door, if it is open.

I do not limit myself to the specific means shown for feeding the blanks nor to feeding them positively by any means, because they may obtain their movement by gravity, the chute being inclined throughout the entire length. Neither do I limit myself to the specific means shown for testing the blanks on their way to the die nor to the specific means for causing the trap-door to be opened by the tester, which consists in mechanical connections between the two; but

I claim-- 1. In combination with a die-press or similar mechanism adapted to operate upon blanks delivered to it, a race for conducting the blanks to the die; suitable pickup and dropper mechanism for delivering blanks onto such race; a tester constructed and arranged to operate on the blanks while on the race; a trap-door or switch in the race 5 and connections by which the tester, when actuated by the encounter with excessive blanks on the race, sets the trap-door or switch in position to discard such blanks.

2. In a die press or similar mechanism adapted to operate upon blanks delivered to it, a race forconducting the blanks to the die; suitable mechanism for delivering blanks onto the race; a feeding device for advancing the blanks along the race; and mechanism having movements timed synchronously with the press for giving such feeding device step-by-step movement with rest intervals; a tester located opposite a rest position of the blanks on the race; mechanism timed synchronously with the feeding mechanism to advance the tester to encounter with such blanks during the rest interval of the feeding movement; a trap-door or switch in the race; and mechanism for opening the same, constructed and arranged to be actuated to open it when the tester is actuated excessively by the encounter with an excessive blank or blanks on the race.

3. In combination with a die-press or like mechanism for operating upon blanks delivered to it; a race along which the blanks are conducted toward the die; feeding mechanism for advancing the blanks along the race step by step; actuating mechanism for said feeding mechanism timed synchronously with the movements of the press; a tester and mechanism for operating it to cause it to encounter the blanks in the race at their rest position and interval; a trap-door in the race beyond said rest position; and mechanism connected with the tester for causing it to open the trap-door when it encounters an excessive blank or blanks in the race; and de- .vices for holding the trap-door open during the next feeding movement of the mechanism and for allowing it to close during the rest interval.

4. In combination with a die-press or similar mechanism adapted to operate upon blanks delivered to it, a race along which the blanks move toward the die; suitable mechanism for delivering blanks at intervals onto the race; a tester constructed and arranged to operate on the blanks while they are on the race; a trap-door or switch in the race beyond the position at which the blanks are operated on by the tester; and connections by which the tester, when actuated by encounter with excessive blanks, sets the trap-door or switch in position to discard such blanks; and mechanism for holding the trap-door open for a suitable interval to allow the blanks to reach it from the tester and for closing it before the neXt action of the tester.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two witnesses.

EMIL' TYDEN.

Witnesses:

J. T. LOMBARD, BELLE H. BURTON. 

